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Model Secondary Schools Project Working with schools and districts to ensure our urban students have the 21st Century schools they deserve. |
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Reflection |
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As American educators in the first decade of the twenty-first century, we are standing on the edge, our students and communities at our side. We can leap, or we can fall, or we can try to stay where we are. If we are going to leap, we must gather enough strength, and leap with enough resolve to get to the other side. Who we are: The Model Secondary Schools Project started as a Gates Foundation funded project to open new small public high schools in eight urban school districts from 2000 to 2004. The concept was to create schools that could serve as models for other schools in their communities. Working with selected public school districts, these schools were established in neighborhoods traditionally serving high poverty and underperforming students. Eight schools were started, one each in Compton, Las Vegas, East St. Louis, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Detroit, Rochester and Boston. One of the eight—Tech Boston Academy—has become a nationally recognized model of student success. Linda Keller and Ron MacDonald are the principal partners of the Model Secondary Schools Project. We have worked together on school development since 1997 and bring passion and experience in education policy, school administration, instruction, cognition, and technology to our work. We have selected urban schools as our targeted clients because of a personal commitment to contributing to the resolution of the social justice issues and a professional commitment to improving the outcomes for urban students by expanding the scope and intensity while tightening the focus of efforts to improve urban schools. What we do: The Model Secondary Schools Project provides consulting services and technical support to schools and districts working to significantly improve student performance. We work from a few core beliefs: · Today’s students, no matter their history, family conditions, prior performance or current attitude, have the capacity to think deeply, act on their values, explore new zones of knowledge, and play well with others. · Today’s teachers, administrators and support staff have a deeper well of experience and knowledge than ever before but are constrained by a variety of social and educational traditions that effectively neutralize their heartfelt intentions as educators. (Much more so than financial or regulatory constraints.) · Schools can make much better use of existing and developing information and communications tools to actively engage in gathering information, discussing options professionally and making instructional and strategic decisions by analyzing valid data. · Changing schools must be a transparent, collaborative process that engages representative stakeholders from all areas of the community. · Educational change performed in isolation that brings improved results in a single classroom is powerful for individual students and teachers, but it is unlikely to produce long term results. Our focus is on working for the long term. · Inconsistency in efforts to change schools – resulting in an impatient change of strategies every year or two – is likely to yield only incremental improvements at best. Incremental improvement in the educational options and opportunities we offer our students will do little to address the underlying educational equity issues facing us today, let alone offer all our students a valuable education. Where we work: We live in the Seattle area but work where ever we find a deep commitment to significantly and rapidly improving educational outcomes for students. We are currently working with the Rochester City School District on development of a district wide high school strategy and school reform plan, providing executive coaching for district administrators, and facilitating the design of a BioTech High School. We recently worked with nine schools in the Clark County School District, facilitating the planning and implementation of 9th Grade Academies and reorganizing the schools as Small Learning Communities. We continue to provide technical assistance to the small high schools in Boston and Detroit. How we work: Working from both the top down and the bottom up is a core part of our strategy. Three process related goals are the focus of our multi-year commitment to bringing 21st Century Learning and Global Achievement Standards to the forefront of the daily work of schools: · Envisioning Success, · Capacity Building, · Clearing the Path for Opportunity and Innovation. Forming strong relationships and understanding at all levels in a collaborative process is often time consuming, but it results in the crucial involvement of multiple stakeholders. In designing schools we work with stakeholder based school development teams using a process that parallels Appreciative Inquiry. For this effort to succeed we will need to accomplish the following along the way: · Break out of the cycle of change and change again · Engage multiple stakeholders in a locally designed solution · Give teams autonomy to make complex decisions and to take the required actions for follow-through · Expand the capacity for leadership that is visionary, supportive and thoughtful · Engage staff in professional quality planning and delivery of instruction tuned to the needs and goals of students · Establish a school culture based on high expectations, trust and mutual respect · Build on the will to reach this far. |
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Looking at what we do |
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Resources |
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Mailing Address: Model Secondary Schools Project, LLC PO Box 1684 Bellevue, WA 98009-1684
Fax: 888-734-7304 |
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Contact Information |
